Handing over the reins of power from one manager to another can be an anxious time for any football club.

The worries run deeper and wider when the outgoing manager has stamped his mark on the club as profoundly as Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, or Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley at Liverpool.

Those man were not merely long serving and highly successful in their jobs: they were builders of footballing empires.

The successors each had to face the task of following a legend.

The owners, boards of directors and advisors tasked with finding the replacements come under enormous, unspoken pressure to make the right choice. They know history will judge their decisions in the light of the achievements of those that went before.

So it is not surprising that the appointments are often internal: a trusted assistant accepting promotion to the number one position.

It worked for Liverpool on three occasions: from Bill Shankly to an initially reluctant Bob Paisley in 1974, from Paisley to his right-hand man Joe Fagan in 1983 and on again to the appointment of player-manager Kenny Dalglish in 1985.

But the formula did not work for United when Busby retired.

Wilf McGuinness, promoted from the coaching staff in 1969, inherited a team in which Denis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton were still in their prime as players, although Best was becoming all but impossible to control at that stage of his career.

McGuinness, 31, found it difficult to assert his authority in the dressing room, to cope with the enormous pressures of the job and also had to deal with interference from Busby, who had moved upstairs to become general manager and would not make a clean break from his old domain.

McGuinness, appointed in June 1969, was sacked in December 1970. His replacement, Frank O’Farrell did little better and the club went through the trauma of relegation from the top flight before Tommy Doherty, an experienced hand, built a team strong enough to overcome the ghosts of the past.

It was understandable therefore that United looked this summer to a manager with plenty of top-flight experience when choosing David Moyes as replacement for Ferguson.

Even so, Moyes is facing the hardest act any manager has to follow in terms of the weight of Ferguson’s successes and the longevity of his reign. United’s owners listened closely to Ferguson’s own advice about who should succeed him.

Liverpool fans might argue Paisley was a tougher act to follow on the basis that his ratio of major trophies against years in the job was slightly better than Ferguson’s. Paisley also won the ultimate prize, the European Cup, three times to Ferguson’s twice.

Whichever way you dice up the numbers however, Fagan left behind no doubts about the wisdom of his appointment.

Paisley’s right-hand man embarked on a short but memorable spell in charge in which he took Liverpool to an unprecedented treble, including the European Cup in 1983/84.

The handover of power that took place at Anfield 30 years ago did not generate the surprise and powerful aftershocks of Ferguson’s announcement and Moyes’ appointment last month.

The Anfield handover was planned well in advance and Fagan, the inside man, had plenty of time to prepare.

Paisley announced his decision to retire at the end of the 1981/82 season, telling a football writers’ dinner staged in his honour: “I’ll give it another 12 months, which will see me complete 44 years of Anfield and then I will hand it over.”

Liverpool quickly ended speculation about Paisley successor by naming Fagan, who officially took charge at Anfield at the beginning of July, 1983.

“The man who is taking my place is hungrier than me,” Paisley said when collecting his sixth manager of the year award at the end of the 82/83 campaign, which saw Liverpool win the title and the League Cup.

Mindful of his own experience with Shankly, and perhaps also of events at Manchester United in 1969, Paisley insisted he would not interfere with Fagan’s job.

He said: “It will be a terrible wrench to step down as manager.

“Bill Shankly did it too soon and regretted it for the rest of his life. But I know this time is right for me.”

The time was also right for Fagan, who had been a member of the Boot Room coaching staff at Anfield since 1959, working as Paisley’s assistant since 1974.

Fagan commanded enormous respect in the dressing room from a group of highly decorated players for whom success had become a way of life.

They were determined to win more trophies for Fagan.

Liverpool lifted three, the First Division title, the League Cup and the European Cup, the first time an English club had achieved such a feat.

All three successes showcased Liverpool’s familiar brand of measured, passing football with a less familiar quality, a relish to scrap for every ball and every yard of turf.

Skipper Graeme Souness recalled later: “As players, we were desperate to do well for Joe Fagan in that season. That’s why a lot of our performances had a battling quality to them. It was Joe who did most of the talking and day-to-day communication with the players during the years Bob Paisley was in charge. We all recognised Bob for the manager he was, a genius. But we had tremendous respect for Joe as well.”

Defender Mark Lawrenson attested: “The biggest tribute I could pay to Joe would be that when he got the job I think every single man in the first team squad was desperate for him to be successful.”

Those players knew that Fagan could, when occasion demanded, drop his comfortable, avuncular manner. Ian Rush said: “He could get far angrier than I ever saw Bob Paisley. And Fagan wasn’t bothered by reputations, either. Dalglish and Souness would be blasted in the dressing room just as much as the youngest player.”

Fagan admitted his early days in the job were difficult, just as Paisley’s had been.

He said: “The first couple of weeks were a bit rough because my mind was racing everywhere,” he said, “yet I seemed to be doing nothing. I was frightened to death I would end up like Bob after his first season in charge, without a trophy.”